The board game of this invention is of the general type of board games in which a basically flat, square or rectangular board is utilized in conjunction with defined spaces along the outer periphery of the board with inner spaces for stacks of direction-giving situational chance cards which are picked up or retrieved by each respective player landing on such defined peripheral spaces. A pair of conventional dice is employed in conjunction with the playing pieces to enable each player to progress in a clockwise direction around the board in a continual way until one player is in the position of being the winner. However, that is where the similarity ends.
In accordance with the present invention, during play both tokens and paper money are employed and hopefully accumulated by the players until one player acquires the respective minimum combinations of votes and money to progress from political candidate to governor to U.S. Senator to U.S. President while sequentially acquiring the political status essential thereto. The board game of the present invention incorporates a necessity to acquire, as soon as each respective player can do so, at least a threshold knowledge of American political history and a detailed knowledge of certain qualifications and situations involved in attaining and seeking these high political offices in the United States of America. A key object of this invention is increasing the knowledge of each player in this respect. Hence the present invention has a definite teaching function above and beyond the play of the game itself.
Examples of prior patents directed to board games are discussed as follows:
Possibly the best known American board game is described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,026,082 issued to C. B. Darrow and entitled "MONOPOLY". This game has a substantially square, flat-surfaced board containing various streets, public utilities, favorable or unfavorable situations arranged in divided spaces positioned along the outer periphery of the board along with interiorally positioned spaces for packs of situation cards which may be favorable or unfavorable to the player directed to pick the respective situation card from the interior of the board. A plurality of playing pieces are utilized, along with a pair of conventional dice to acquire property and money with the game ending when either the remaining player(s) acknowledge(s) defeat and submits, or when one player has all of the money and property. In the play of the game, as property is acquired and another (non-owning) player lands on the property, various amounts of money (as indicated on title cards) must be paid to the owning player. The game of "MONOPOLY" has no basic teaching function with regard to any particular aspect of pursuit of high American political office leading to the Presidency.
French Pat. No. 2,363,346 (DEMANDE DE BREVET D'INVENTION NO. 76 26729) is disclosed as having a local or national government theme with each player representing a political party as denoted by a color. There are four colors disclosed, thus permitting four players to play the game. The board forms a circuit and has several cards relating to recounts of elections; irregularities throughout such an election; balloting conducted during such election and similar hazards. In playing this political game, each player throws three dice, two of these being conventional. The third die has three blank faces and three marked "incident". A card is taken from a constituency pack, which card contains the results relating to this. Votes are proportional according to the numbers thrown on the dice. An "incident" requires the player to take a card giving details to be followed by each respective player involved in such "incident". The player getting the maximum number of votes wins the seat and the maximum number of seats wins the game.
U.S. Pat. No. 398,233 to J. P. and J. W. Clarke is directed to a political game concerning the American political system which is played with cards especially designed for the purpose of teaching the player various aspects of the elective process to become a Mayor, U.S. Congressman, U.S. Governor, and President. This game is played with a board of rectangular shape; six sets consisting of 48 cards; 2 buttons or "wads"; and pegs. Two, four, or six persons can play this game. If four people play, there are two "sides" of two partners each, e.g. the Democrats vs. the Republicans. This board game is disclosed as having been designed for the purpose of "the game of politics" or "the race for the Presidency." The main objective of the game is stated in Rule 9 as "Having entered the candidate, the aim is to push him along up the ladder till he is elected--that is, until he reaches the chair at the top of the ladder". Included in the Clarke game and positioned on the game board is a list of 38 states and the apparently then existing electoral votes for President possessed by each of these 38 states.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,140,319 to Kenneth W. Aycock et al is directed to a money and land acquisition game with six playing pegs; two dice; a playing board; four playing pieces, play (auction) money; transparent tiles; title and deed cards; and venture (situation) cards, issuing commands or instructing the player to move to various places on the board, or pay or collect various amount of money to or from various other player(s).
U.S. Pat. No. 1,153,802 issued to D. D. Lowery is directed to a political game apparatus having a playing board at the center of which is located a dial to be spun by each player under given situations and, radiating outwardly therefore, are a series of segmentally shaped sections constituting spaces containing information regarding the various states, such as, the capital of the state, when the state initially entered the union, viz., United States of America, and the number of electoral votes possessed by each state apparently at the time the application was submitted to the U.S. Patent Office. Territorial possessions of the U.S. are similarly included in the segmented radially arranged spaces.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,525,526 issued to M. A. Kenrick relates to a political board game apparatus for simulating a United States Presidential election. This board game is played with fifty-one (51) political party markers for each player, e.g., elephants or donkeys, pegs, a ring-shaped article, money pieces, voting pieces representing the electoral votes of each subdivision, a discard box and a deck of cards containing at least one card for each state and the District of Columbia, plus blank cards. The playing board is divided into a group of five rows and ten columns to form a playing area having fifty squares. Each square corresponds to a respective state of the United States, with one square being divided into two parts to designate the District of Columbia. Each square has printed or inscribed in it the number of the state to which it corresponds, together with the number of electoral votes assigned to that state. Two cube-shaped dice are utilized, with one having the numbers 0, 1, 2, 4, 7 and 8, whereas the other has the numbers 0, 1, 3, 5, 6 and 9.
It will be readily apparent that none of these games combine the features and teaching aspects of the political game of this invention.